There was no way on Gods earth I could afford a new multi, my dream bike. £15000, are you joking! Bought a Cat C Multistrada 1200. Was delivered on three pallets!! Every panel was smashed, forks damaged, all the electrics ripped out (and boy does the multi 1200 have a lot of wiring!!). All front end completely ripped off. Never put together anything like it before. But.........Over winter I brought it back to life. Cost £3k to buy smashed. Spent just under £4k. Its now immaculate, dripping with carbon fibre, and powder coated parts. Ok its not worth the 12k a bike like this would go for, but its worth £10k as a cat C and I love it. What's more it taught me so much putting it all back together and I enjoyed every second of the build. Thats priceless. So much so that I now look at damaged repairable's on the auction sites. From not having done anything like it before, don't think anything would phase me now.
I'd generally agree with that, however.......(there is always a however, isn't there) my mum used to subscribe to readers digest. With some regularity they used to have 'prize draws' with the added bonus of "reply now and be entered into an extra draw to win a free TV" for some reason, she sent it back right away, normally it would have hit the bin. About a week later a letter came saying she had won a TV. The usual thoughts kicked in - yeah, but you have to go to a time share presentation and sit there for eight hours being brain washed to pick up a crappy cheap tv, so the letter was ignored. Two days later, she was at home when the door bell rang. Standing there was a guy holding a big box saying "delivery for Mrs Harrison". The draw was legit, there was nothing extra to sign, and to boot it was a very nice Sony Trinitron that served in our dining room for many many years. Back when this happened this model was about £200 - one of the most expensive small TV's out there. If something is too good to be true it usually is, however if the source is reputable, it may be legit if its within the realms of possibility. buying cat C and D vehicles is well known, and there is plenty of advice. As long as the vehicle has been repaired properly its fine. Cat D is safest, as there will have been no structural damage, so if it looks right it will be right.
This is also very true. When I crashed my old CBR 600 I repaired it myself (TPFT insurance) so the insurance company never did know about it. The bike was HPI clear, but would have undoubtedly been a cat D write off had there been an insurance claim. By the time a bike is 10 years old, you can pretty much guarantee the bike has been down the road at least once in its life. My ducati has a receipt from 4th dimension, so I know its had some damage, however the receipt is for the insurance excess so for an insurance company to choose to repair rather than write off a 9 year old SS the damage must have been very slight. My text check (like a cut down HPI check) revealed the bike as completely clean when I bought it.
The biggest problem you will have is selling it on when you next want a change of bike. No one will touch a Cat C or D without a big discount and i suspect most dealers would not be interested at all.
Its so much easier restoring a bike when the whole thing isnt covered in years of road grime and salt. It also gives you a great connection to your bike
Might get some flack for this but you could also sell the bike abroad where it is impossible to trace UK cat write off when bike was exported. I would have no issues selling a sorted C or D abroad without mentioning it as long as I said it was slightly down the road.
